Pairing one of today’s most gifted jazz guitarists (Anthony Pirog) with one of rock ‘n’ roll’s fiercest rhythm sections (Brendan Canty and Joe Lally) was always going to be a recipe for success, but on their sophomore LP Anthropocosmic Nest, Washington, D.C.’s The Messthetics are blowing past the old goals and delivering one of the most raucous and satisfying releases of the year. Wildly inventive with surprises awaiting the listener at every turn, Nest is an ecstatic proclamation of skronk-and-circumstance that says not only are The Messthetics BACK, but they’re here to stay!

It's likely that we'll look back at 2017 as the year almost everything fell apart, downerism ruled the land, and we came very close to being broken as a people.

But we didn't break. We made it. And on this final installment of ChunkyGlasses: The Podcast for 2017, we're discussing the music that lifted us up, dropped us down, and sometimes even showed us the way, but never, ever let us down.

Thanks for tuning in all year. We'll see you soon. Until then be good to your ears, but be better to your people...

To say Julien Baker wears her heart on her sleeve would be an understatement. On Turn Out The Lights, the Memphis, Tennessee native (now based in Nashville) turns up the feels on an emotional roller coaster of an album that drags the listener down to the bottom and doesn't offer a clear way back from the depths.

Kevin, Eduardo, and Marcus are spending some time with this elegiac powerhouse of an album and considering the truth in "downerism" and if it's OK to feel oh-so-not-OK.

PLUS! Soul Man Gregory Porter is back and hitching a ride with Nat King Cole to make you "Smile" on his latest LP, Nat King Cole & Me.

The best kinds of shows are the ones that you can connect with on an emotional level. These are the ten that I connected with the most. Some were complete surprises, others were just as great as I envisioned it would be. Because it’s 2016 and we’re in the midst of the War on Attention Spans, I present to you my 10 favorite concerts...in haiku.

After releasing two albums simultaneously in October 2013 and touring them extensively, Kevin Devine spent last year releasing a bimonthly singles series, Devinyl Splits, in which he released a series of six split singles with artists such as Meredith Graves from Perfect Pussy, Matthew Caws from Nada Surf, and Jesse Lacey from Brand New. When that series ended fans waited anxiously to see what Devine would come up with next. The answer finally came this fall with the release of Instigator, his ninth studio album. Devine, with his group The Goddamn Band, began an extensive US tour at the beginning of November with the first stop in Baltimore at the Baltimore Soundstage.

U Street Music Hall has seen its fair share of DJs and loud rock bands over the years, but it’s rare that it receives a quiet and powerful singer-songwriter, let alone a quiet crowd. Making waves at SXSW and a Tiny Desk Concert released earlier this year, Tennessee’s Julien Baker played songs from her debut album, “Sprained Ankle”, for the very attentive fans at U Hall.